For all those who think they couldn't possibly save anymore and there is no way to get ahead, here's a good story. These folks lived on the bare minimum and saved 80% of their pay. They bought and paid off a home in 3 years. Granted, they earned a substantial income, but they also worked their tails off to do so. Not everyone could be as extreme as this couple, but I think there are some good lessons there.

There was also an article in MONEY this month about a family (with kids) who vowed to not buy anything new (with a couple of exceptions) for an entire year. Everything would have to come from thrift shops, flea markets, trash picking, hand-me-downs or borrowed. Again, an extreme route to go but evidence that living on a lot less than most of us currently do is very possible if you really set your mind to it.

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My aunt used to work with a girl that kept $20 cash from her pay for gas (remember those days when $20 would pay for 2 weeks of gas?) and saved the rest. Of course she was living at home and presumably eating her parents' food and all that. . . but she was making decent money (x-ray tech) and refused to get married until she could pay cash for a house.

I couldn't in any way shape or form. 20% of my income wouldn't even cover my rent for the year, let alone utilities and food.

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He played with his numbers quite abit. That 80% savings was 80% of take home pay and included in that 80% was money spent on his house, cars and other assests and paying off debts. So really it wasn't 80% savings it was closer to 80% towards an increase in positive net worth.

Personally I couldn't ever see myself working 14 hour days for 99 days straight.

My aunt used to work with a girl that kept $20 cash from her pay for gas (remember those days when $20 would pay for 2 weeks of gas?) and saved the rest. Of course she was living at home and presumably eating her parents' food and all that. . . but she was making decent money (x-ray tech) and refused to get married until she could pay cash for a house.

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I would be supportive of my children, if they made this choice! A good start in life puts you so far ahead.

I have 8 more years left of my 15 year mortgage and I'm happy with that. We sock some $$$ away for savings, 401k, 529 fund and put extra $$$ to bring down the mortgage quicker. I'll be in my early 40's when my mortgage is done, and that's good for me.

Interesting article. I think we could save another 10% if we had to with our present committments, but we live pretty lean as it is. I just calculated our net savings, I always calculate using our gross pay, and using that number we save 40%. We save 55% of our take-home pay, not including the match from my DH's employer on his 401K. Our "must haves" or all of our bills including anything to do with the house, utilities, all insurance, transportation and groceries is 26%. So our fun money/travel expenses is at 19% of our take home pay. We're perfectly happy at this level so I'm not sure how much lower I'd like to go. But if we *had* to...sure we could save more.

Yes, that's pretty strict. I could have done that when I was young though (just out of college age). I wouldn't dare do that now unless things were really dire. I worked 2 jobs for quite awhile when I lived alone and some days I was burned out, but while you're young you have the ability to do it short term.

We save 10-15% while I stay at home, but in 3-4 years when I start working I'll be saving 100% of what I make and still try to save at least 10% of DH's.

We also agree to put his raises in savings/investing for now. That will definately help. I'm frugal on certain things and other things I'm not, so we could save more if we wanted. We're fairly comfortable right now.

We get Money magazine, so I did see the article on the family not buying much of anything new. Very interesting.
I could see DH and I doing something similar for awhile just to save up excess for furniture we want or a vacation, but nothing long term.

I have a former friend whose husband is EVERY bit this cheap, but not NEAR this motivated. However, they save 100% of her take home pay and a chunk of his. Thier house is paid off etc.

(And they are MISERABLE and have very few folks who will spend ANY time with them. They don't understand why none of us want to listen them WHINE about how much everything costs. They don't understand why some of us think the fact that they had their children in the WORST child care situation we ever heard of was bad... after all it was cheap. They don't understand why thier "friends" don't think a night out is kids meals at Mickey Ds.)

For folks like this I think it is as much about "attention" (The author brags about HOW much he worked, don't you bet everyone heard about it. And let's NOT discuss the QUALITY of work you give your employer...)

I also think it's a disorder just live overspending. "In all things moderation"

Well, the author of this article did say that it was crazy....I think he was just trying to point out that it could be done. Working 90-100 hour weeks for three years would make living on 20K a year fairly easy I suppose.....if all you do is work there is no time to spend money.

To be honest the "lean years" sound miserable to me, but what a place to be now! It got me to thinking, what kind of boost could DH and I get if we really just bucked down and took 2 or 3 super lean years? What would we be able to accomplish?

Right now we save plenty, but we also have a lot of fat and luxuries in our budget. What if we gave them up for couple of years--how much would that net us? Would it be worth it?

I know I'll be playing with numbers tonight. It's a very interesting idea...

I think that it is great idea although extreme. DH and I did something similar in our first few years out of college. We continued to live in an apartment and share a car while we retired our college debt. We were not this extreme but those super frugal years are the major reason that we were in such great shape by our early 30's.

If others would try something similar we wouldn't read so many posts of people over their heads in debt. A few years of sacrifice can pay off big.

honestly, this wouldnt be all that hard to do. Alot of people make it on $24,000 a year. Why would it be hard to live on $2,000 a month when that doesnt count your morgage or car payments?? Especially if they didnt have kids, and I dont think they did. I am also guessing that they invested into their 401ks or equivilant every month too! Very smart of these people IMO!

To be honest the "lean years" sound miserable to me, but what a place to be now! It got me to thinking, what kind of boost could DH and I get if we really just bucked down and took 2 or 3 super lean years? What would we be able to accomplish?

Right now we save plenty, but we also have a lot of fat and luxuries in our budget. What if we gave them up for couple of years--how much would that net us? Would it be worth it?

I know I'll be playing with numbers tonight. It's a very interesting idea...

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I think that's big prize....getting that debt out of the way so early in your life...it just gives you a huge advantage in the future.

This kind of story really motivates me to look at our finances and figure out how we could live SUPER lean for a couple of years to get that much farther ahead. I think one of the biggest things that couple had going was that they had the same view on finances. DH and I come at things differently and though I will crunch numbers and approach him with the concept over the weekend, he will be a hard sell. He is much more interested in living life now, you know? Not that that is wrong, I feel that way sometimes too, but the payoff of being debt free and having a substantial savings BEFORE we have our first child seems worth it to me.

honestly, this wouldnt be all that hard to do. Alot of people make it on $24,000 a year. Why would it be hard to live on $2,000 a month when that doesnt count your morgage or car payments?? Especially if they didnt have kids, and I dont think they did. I am also guessing that they invested into their 401ks or equivilant every month too! Very smart of these people IMO!